Hardware

The Power of USB 3.0 Will Be Unleashed on Mobile in 2012

New USB standard can reach speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second.

Google+ Twitter

Ricky publishes and manages the content on BizTech magazine's website. He's a writer, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all-around digital guy.

It’s been 12 years since the specifications for USB 2.0 came out and now, in 2012, the public will get to utilize the blazingly fast speeds of its newest sibling, USB 3.0, on mobile devices.

The USB Implementers Forum made an announcement at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show that we’d see smartphones and tablets with USB 3.0 (aka USB SuperSpeed) ports by the end of this year.

Rahman Ismail, CTO of the USB Implementers Forum, spoke in detail about the increased speed made possible by USB 3.0 in an interview with VentureBeat.

The USB 3.0 ports will likely get a MicroUSB version, similar to the smaller ports currently on many cellphones, according to Rahman Ismail, CTO of the USB Implementers Forum. They will achieve theoretical speeds of around 800 megabits per second, significantly faster than the current USB 2.0 standard, which has a theoretical maximum speed of 480 Mbps (but in reality, performs but much slower).

“What takes 15 minutes [with USB 2.0] will roughly take 1 minute and 10 seconds,” Ismail said.

Want to see USB 3.0’s next-generation technology at work yourself? Watch this video from Engineering TV.

For more on the improvements in USB technology, read our piece on USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0 by James Gaskin.

textfield